Portfolio: Lunch walk draws record numbers

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Independence Blue Cross hosted a record 26,000 people from 105 employers in Rittenhouse Square and locations throughout the region Wednesday during the sixth annual National Walk @ Lunch Day, a national effort sponsored by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association to demonstrate how easy it is to take a walk at lunch and fit exercise into the busiest of schedules.

The local walk — the largest organized National Walk @ Lunch Day event in the country — nearly doubled in size this year, with an increase of more than 12,000 walkers over last year, including employees of IBC’s customers, Philadelphia city employees, area school children, community members, and IBC associates.

Downtown at Rittenhouse Square, the Phillie Phanatic, the Sixers Dream Team, Zumba demonstrations, IBC choral and dance groups, and a hands-free CPR presentation from the Philadelphia Regional Emergency Medical Services entertained and informed the crowd as approximately 5,000 participants walked a one-mile course around the perimeter of the square between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

At more than 100 satellite walk locations not within walking distance of Center City, 21,000 others walked at lunch in activities organized by employers, school districts, and senior centers.

This year, IBC’s long-standing community partner, the American Cancer Society, joined the National Walk @ Lunch Day festivities at Rittenhouse Square and enrolled 70 participants in the Cancer Society’s landmark national cancer prevention study, Cancer Prevention Study-3, or CPS-3.

HOUSING: According to the Census Bureau, increases in total building permits issued for residential units from February to March varied widely: from 11 percent in Delaware to 58 percent in New Jersey to 75 percent in Pennsylvania, and 15 percent in the nation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported.

Single-family permits rose more consistently – 24 percent in Delaware, 28 percent in New Jersey, and 40 percent in Pennsylvania. The variability across states for total permits largely stemmed from permits issued for multifamily units, which fell 29 percent in Delaware but rose 93 percent in New Jersey and 253 percent in Pennsylvania.

Year-to-date total permits for March are greater than they were in March 2012 – ranging from 18 percent higher in Delaware to 25 percent higher in Pennsylvania.

For more, visit http://www.philadelphiafed.org

FRACKING: Common Cause and 11 environmental groups are raising more questions about the role of gas industry-associated consultants in New York’s environmental impact study of shale gas drilling and fracking.

A review of Department of Environmental Conservation documents obtained by Common Cause through Freedom of Information Law requests shows two more firms with memberships in the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York were contracted for the state’s review. The review, still incomplete after five years, will determine whether fracking will be allowed in the state.

Environmental groups and a dozen state legislators on Wednesday questioned the role of consultant Ecology and Environment Inc., in the review. Common Cause says Thursday that Alpha Geoscience and URS Corporation were also contracted for the review. All three had memberships in IOGANY.

SWEET PROFITS: Hershey says its net income rose in the first quarter as it sold more of its namesake chocolates and benefited from lower costs for ingredients.

The company, which makes Kit Kat, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Twizzlers, said cost-cutting initiatives also improved its profit margins for the period and raised its outlook for the year.

For the year, Hershey said it now expects adjusted earnings per share to increase about 12 percent, which is on the high end of the 10 percent to 12 percent growth it previously forecast.

It stood by its sales forecast for growth of 5 to 7 percent.

For the quarter, The Hershey Co. said net income was $241.9 million, or $1.06 per share. That’s up from $198.7 million, or 87 cents per share, a year ago.

Not including one-time charges, the company said it earned $1.09 per share, above the $1.04 that analysts were expecting.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $1.83 billion from $1.73 billion a year ago, shy of the $1.84 billion that Wall Street was looking for.